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N7 Slayer Vanguard
These soldiers are the go-anywhere, fight-anything special forces of the Alliance that were trained at the Interplanetary Combatives Academy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They had to survive combat situations "in an admirable and effective fashion" to receive the N7 rank. Many N7s now train other species in anti-Reaper asymmetric warfare. Slayers use implants to dramatically improve mobility. Their dizzying sword attacks can hit multiple opponents, and the Slayer's ability to slip fire makes them hard to pin down on the battlefield. Powers Melee and movement Player Notes General Notes *The Slayer's dodges and heavy melee strikes trigger a teleportation effect (which costs a small portion of barrier each time), which a player can use to teleport not only through objects and walls, but also up and down ladders (note that the high ladders in Firebase Ghost and Firebase Vancouver are an exception to this rule), skipping the seconds of climbing animation that leaves you vulnerable. **If a player using the Slayer dies in the middle of a warp (being dodge moves or melee attacks), the corpse will not be visible (except for the sword). *Biotic Slash can be one of the most effective powers in the game if used correctly. It can do hefty damage to all forms of protection, as well as knocking unprotected enemies off their feet. With the Rank 6 Range upgrade, it will travel 30m, making it a potent tool for mid range combat (being the range-limited power with the longest reach). Whenever possible, try to use the ability while safely behind tall cover. It is invaluable for slowing enemy advances, weakening strong opponents, and killing weaker ones outright. With a high power recharge rate, one can spam this ability every two seconds. **Biotic Slash can be used through cover and walls, helping to negate the lack of damage reduction while the lenghty animation plays. ***Note that while Biotic Slash will travel through cover, it always travels in a straight line parallel to the ground, making it ineffective for engaging opponents who are at significantly higher or lower elevations. On Firebase Giant, for example, if you use Biotic Slash from the top of a ladder, it will not affect the enemies who are below you. **Additionally, the ending lag of Biotic Slash can be cancelled into melee (both types), dodge and cover animations. *If Biotic Charge is leveled to restore barriers fully and Fitness to increase melee damage, the Slayer is quite capable of devastating any lone or small group of enemy/enemies. A Charge, followed by a melee flurry, followed by another charge when your Barriers drop repeated ad infinitum allows the Slayer to inflict a constant barrage of high-damage attacks while still maintaining barrier strength. Should the player be able to acquire targets quickly, this tactic can be used against much larger groups, with charge used to jump between kills. **As usual, care should be taken when engaging large groups without squad support as they are capable of surrounding and overwhelming you. *Phase Disruptor is essentially a long range Nova attack. It consumes your barriers to send out a powerful energy burst that will hit wherever you are currently aiming. However, it does not lock on opponents; it goes where your crosshair is pointed. Its radius can be fairly large, and it can be evolved to deal extra damage to armor or barriers. Overall, it can be less effective than Biotic Slash in most situations, though it does have the advantage of not having a cooldown. **With a Volus Adept or Vanguard (with Biotic Orbs activated for maximum recharge speed effectiveness) standing next to you and constantly uses Shield Boost, you basically have endless barriers, allowing to spam Phase Disruptor at ease. **As of January 15, Phase Disruptor's barrier cost has been significantly reduced, from 50% to 40% naturally and from 37.5% to 20% with the Efficient Blast evolution. This allows the Slayer to fire up to five Phase Disruptor shots from full barrier, greatly increasing their damage output. *Because the Slayer also makes use of biotic abilities as well more melee-oriented class skills (such as the N7 Shadow's), one may want to keep their loadout as light as possible, especially if planning extensive use of the Biotic Charge. This will limit your effectiveness with guns, but evolved properly, you can destroy enemies from afar using your Phase Disruptor, Biotic Charge at your enemies to replenish barriers, and then retreat to safety for deadly sneak attacks. *In terms of damage, the Slayer ranks a conditional 4th place in heavy melee damage, behind the N7 Shadow (depending on how the N7 Shadow's melee is built and what enemies are being attacked). Despite this, the Slayer's light melee is much faster, making the Slayer far surpass even the Batarians' Enforcement Gauntlets or the Krogan Warlord Sentinel in pure melee damage due to massive DPS. Combining that with Biotic Charge to close into melee range faster makes the Slayer one of the preeminent melee kits. **This makes the Slayer uniquely deadly using a "Charge+Melee" tactics, where the Slayer Biotic Charges into enemies (staggering them), following with a series of rapids light melee attacks, then Charging again as soon as Biotic Charge has cooled down. This lends to an extremely aggressive and fast-paced play style, but exacts extreme amounts of damage against enemies. **The Slayer's heavy melee is a powerful slash that moves and phases the character some distance forward. Charge this from a distance to hit your target instead of flying past it and leaving yourself open to enemy attacks. Also, similar to his dodge, the Slayer's Heavy Melee also allows the player to traverse areas of certain maps with ease; currently, it can allow the player to climb up certain ledges regardless of if a ladder is nearby. **The Slayer's heavy melee also has the unique benefit of teleporting behind enemies in cover (much like a short-ranged Shadow Strike), making this a more useful "moving" heavy melee than the Krogan Charge, which only moves straight forward. **The Slayer's light melee is a series of three sword strikes. The character will move in and out of phase with each strike as fast as you make them (similar to N7 Fury's light melee), which means that you can repeatedly strike an enemy with relative impunity. This takes practice, but when mastered allows the slayer to literally shred just about any enemy in a few seconds, even Banshees or Brutes. Using equipment which increase melee damage makes this an extremely powerful form of attack, and can be useful when dealing with a very powerful enemy, or where you are surrounded by several with few avenues of escape. This is also a much faster option than the Biotic Slash, which is slow to implement and can get you killed in such a situation. **Care should be taken when engaging in melee fights with Phantoms, Atlases, Brutes, Banshees, Scions, and Praetorians. All of these enemies have the potential to sync-kill a Slayer, even in the middle of a melee barrage. It is usually recommended to either focus on lower-tiered enemies and allow teammates the boss kills, or switch to ranged tactics when engaging aforementioned enemies. Cerberus *The biggest problem for this class against Cerberus is the Guardian. His shield will block all of the Slayer's attacks. A precise weapon (such as the Carnifex) to shoot through the visor or an armor piercing modded weapon is the best choice to use. **Another method of dealing with Guardians is to fire your Phase Disruptor just behind them. This will cause them to stagger and leave most of their body, including their head, open to attack. A charged shot from the Geth Plasma Shotgun aimed at the visor will, on lower difficulties, usually kill the Guardian. **Currently, Biotic Slash will affect the Guardian when used head-on, killing them outright in some cases. **Phase Disruptor used head on will also stagger Guardians and open their shields leaving them vulnerable to weapons fire. *Stick behind cover and use the Biotic Slash to hit enemies through walls and other forms of cover. This will hurt enemies while also protecting you from long-range attacks since this class is generally physically weak. *Charge+Melee tactics are very useful against Cerberus, and if maintained properly, will allow a Slayer to rarely be downed even on Gold difficulty, but pay careful heed that Charge+Melee tactics are useless against Guardians, so plan ahead. Collectors *Steer clear of the Praetorians if you're focusing on melee, otherwise N7 Slayers are very effective against the Collectors due to their Biotic Slash ability. Scions also need to be handled carefully in melee combat. *Phase Disruptor is unaffected by Seeker Swarms. *Abominations should be avoided in melee combat. Even the normal explosion usually cancels out the barrier recovery from Charge. However, the Slayer's heavy melee will decapitate Abominations if it kills, nullifying the explosion. That tactic is especially useful against Possessed Abominations that get too close to your team. *Charge+Melee is not recommended against the Collectors on harder difficulties (Gold and Platinum), as the abundance of Seeker Swarms and Abominations can leave your powers cooling down or you staggered too often to be effective. Geth *This enemy class is where the Slayer will excel in combat. Four Biotic Slash attacks will kill every enemy weaker than a Geth Prime on Gold difficulty or lower. *The Phase Disruptor power should be avoided since its hard enough to fight Geth that hit hard. When Geth can both hit hard and stun you it can literally disrupt your ability to charge into the enemy. You need to be fully prepared to charge, but tactically, and the last thing you need is your shields stripped when the Geth start hitting you. *Charge+Melee tactics can be effective against Geth, but care should be exercised as all Geth have the ability to stagger you, thus preventing you from entering the next much-needed Biotic Charge until it is too late. Reapers *This enemy class is easy for the Slayer until Banshees and Ravagers come into play. Banshees are very well defended from your biotic attacks and can sometimes kill you with one Reave if you're not careful. The Ravagers' three-shot burst will kill you if all three hit. Once you see one, get behind a wall or other form of cover to Biotic Slash it or let your teammates take it on as you move on to another enemy. *Since only one foot soldier enemy is protected by shields (Marauder), Biotic Slash is very useful to dispatch/stun/throw hordes of small enemies. It is also useful to get rid of Swarmers spawned by Ravagers. *Phase Disruptor, if specced for armor damage will prove very lethal against Brutes, Ravagers, and Banshees without barriers, but take care not to use said power too liberally, you need to protect yourself as well as kill the enemy. *Charge+Melee tactics are very effective against Reapers, but it is not recommended to engage in extended melee combat with a Brute or Banshee in play. Even if you are not fighting the Brute or Banshee, they can still potentially flank (and subsequently sync-kill) you while your attention is focused on another enemy.